Multi-touch based drawing input method and apparatus

ABSTRACT

The disclosure is a method and device for drawing a figure in correspondence to an input made with a first input tool and a second input tool to the terminal including an input unit capable of detecting physical touch and electrical input according to the present invention includes detecting a touch input made with the first and second input tools to the input unit; displaying at least one line movable according to contact points of the detected input on a display unit of the terminal; receiving a selection command based on the electrical input made with at least one of the first and second input tools; and displaying one of the at least one line as the line of which at least one of length and direction is fixed.

CROSS RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of a Korean patent application filed on Jul. 30, 2012 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office and assigned Serial No. 10-2012-0083020, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to a multi-touch based geometrical figure drawing method and apparatus. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for drawing a geometrical figure such as line, arc, and circle through multi-touch gesture made on an input unit.

BACKGROUND Description of the Related Art

In the conventional terminal equipped with an input unit capable of recognizing user's touch gesture, it is typical to enter a figure-recognition input mode in order to recognize a figure drawn by the user and display the recognized figure.

In the case of drawing a circle, the terminal enters the circle input mode and receives the user input on the center and radius to draw a circle based on the information.

Also, in order to draw a straight line, the terminal enters the line input mode, receives the user input on the start and end points to draw the straight line.

When the user wants to draw an arc, it is accomplished by selecting a part of a pre-drawn circle or drawing a line connecting two points around a reference point.

Since the conventional terminal has to enter a certain operation mode to receive a user input for drawing a figure, this increases the number of steps for drawing the figure, resulting in increase of manipulation complexity.

SUMMARY

The present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above problem and it is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile terminal and audio processing method thereof that is capable of processing the received audio signal in adaptation to the hearing characteristic of the user (particularly, hearing-impaired user).

The present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above problem and it is an object of the present invention to provide a figure drawing method and apparatus of a touch-enabled terminal that is capable of allowing the user to draw a geometrical figure such as line, circle, and arc with a multi-touch gesture without entering a specific figure drawing mode.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a figure drawing method and apparatus of a touch-enabled terminal that is capable of drawing figures such as a line, circle, and arc selectively by inputting position information with a touch gesture having two or more contact points, resulting in improvement of manipulation efficiency.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method for drawing a figure in correspondence to an input made with a first input tool and a second input tool to the terminal including an input unit capable of detecting physical touch and electrical input includes detecting a touch input made with at least one of the first input too and the second input tool to the input unit; displaying at least one line movable according to contact points of the detected input on a display unit of the terminal; receiving a selection command based on an electrical input made with at least one of the first and second input tools; and displaying one of the at least one line as the line of which at least one of length and direction is fixed.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a terminal drawing a figure based on a user input includes an input unit which detects at least one of physical touch and electrical input; a display unit which displays an image based on an input on the input unit; and a control unit which controls detecting a touch input made with the first and second input tools to the input unit; displaying at least one line movable according to contact points of the detected input on a display unit of the terminal; receiving a selection command based on the electrical input made with at least one of the first and second input tools; and displaying one of the at least one line as the line of which at least one of length and direction is fixed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a situation of touch gesture input with various tools on the touch-enabled terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the terminal of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a link in the touch-based drawing input method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary situation of drawing a straight line with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a figure in the touch-based drawing input method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary situation of drawing a figure with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a figure in the touch-based drawing input method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary situation of drawing a figure with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a figure in the touch-based drawing input method according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary situation of drawing a figure with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawings in detail. For the purposes of clarity and simplicity, detailed description of well-known functions and structures incorporated herein may be omitted to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the present invention.

For the same reason, some of elements are exaggerated, omitted or simplified in the drawings and the elements may have sizes and/or shapes different from those shown in drawings, in practice. The same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a situation of touch gesture input with various tools on the touch-enabled terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is capable of receiving a touch gesture made with a both a first input tool 110 and a second input tool 120. The terminal 100 is capable of displaying a line drawn in accordance with an input signal from the first input tool 110 and/or the second input tool 12 corresponding to a touch gesture by means of a display unit 105. An input unit 210 for receiving the input gesture made by the first and second input tools 110 and 120 is arranged to face the same direction as the surface of the display unit 105 such that the result of the input made by means of the input tool is displayed on the display unit 105.

The first input tool 110 may be used to make a touch gesture on the input unit 210 (see FIG. 2). A touch recognition device recognizes the contact points and movement distance based on the pressure or electrical input applied to the input unit 210.

The first input tool 110 may include a selector 115, which may be in the form of a button, sensor, or other user selectable device. The selector 115 may change the pattern of the electrical input applied by the first input tool 110 according to the user's selection. In detail, the electrical input may have a frequency of an electrical vibration or signal generated by the selector 115. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the input unit 120 may include at least one antenna capable of checking the frequency and origin of the electrical vibration.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first input tool 110 may be a tablet pen or stylus, and the selector 115 may be a button which is pushed on/off by a user to generate electrical vibrations of distinct frequencies. The input unit may check different origin and number of frequency changes. If the user activates, by e.g., clicking, the selector 115, the input unit 210 is capable of checking the clicked position and number of clicked times and, if the first input tool 110 moves in the state that it is contacted to the input unit 120 and the selector is clicked, tracing the movement path. Accordingly, the user may make a drag or double click gesture and thus the input unit is capable of detecting the corresponding user input.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the input unit 210 is additionally capable of receiving an input made with the second input tool 120. The second input tool 120 may be a part of the human body (preferably one or more fingers) or a physical object, and the input unit 210 may be implemented with a resistive type touch panel for sensing pressure or a capacitive type touch panel for sensing the change of capacitance caused by the touch. In other embodiments, the second input tool 120 may be a second pen or stylus, similar to the first input tool 110, and the input unit 210 is capable of distinguishing between inputs from the first input tool 110 and the second input tool 120. It is also considered within the scope of the invention to provide the input unit 210 with both a resistive type touch panel as well as a capacitive touch panel for detecting inputs from different types of input tools 110, 120.

The input unit 210 is preferably capable of detecting the touch gestures made with both the first and second input tools 110 and 120 simultaneously and sensing the electric vibration input by the first input tool 110 which varies depending on whether the selector 115 is selected.

Although the description is directed to the case where the display unit 105 and the input unit 210 are arranged in parallel or integrated into the same physical structure, such that a line is drawn on the display unit 105 in correspondence to the user input made with the input tool, it is possible to draw a link corresponding to the input gesture detected by the a separate input unit on the display unit. More particularly, the terminal 100 may be provided with an extra tablet input unit, such as an external touchpad or even a conventional pointing device, and display the figure input through the tablet input unit on a monitor as a separate display unit.

Although the description is directed to the case where the first and second input tools 110 and 120 are used for gesture input, it is additionally considered within the scope of the invention to change the relative positions of the two tools and the gesture taken with one tool may be replaced by that of the other tool through design change.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a preferable configuration of the terminal of FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an input unit 210, a display unit 220, and a control unit 230, or any combination thereof. The control 230 unit typically contains a processor or microprocessor.

The input unit 210 is capable of detecting a touch gesture made with multiple input tools. For example, the touch gesture may be detected by one of the capacitive and resistive panels. If an electrical vibration with a predetermined frequency is generated by an input tool 110, 120, the input unit 210 acquires the information on the electrical vibration frequency, input tool contact point, frequency change, contact point change, etc.

If a touch gesture is made with an input tool 110, 120 on the input unit 210, the input unit 210 checks the contact point(s) of the touch gesture. If the input tool moves while contacting the input unit 210, the input unit 210 is capable of tracking the change of the contact point(s) and movement direction and speed. The input unit 210 is also capable of checking the electrical vibration frequency and change of the frequency generated by a selector 115 of the input units 210.

The display unit 220 is capable of displaying an image input through the input unit 210 and determined by the control unit 230. The display unit 220 may be implemented with any of commercial display panels such as Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Display (AM-OLED) or any other display panel technology, as the present invention is not limited by the technology used therein.

The control unit 230 is capable of analyzing the input gesture made on the input unit 210 and calculating other values. The control unit 230 is also capable of controlling the display unit 220 to display the calculation result values.

More particularly, if a multi-touch gesture having multiple contact points is made on the input unit 210, the control unit 230 calculates the distances between the contract points and directions connecting paired contact points. The display unit 220 may display a line or an image corresponding to the touch gesture. When displaying the data corresponding to the input gesture detected by the input unit 210, the control unit 230 is capable of matching the position on the input unit 220 to the position on the display unit 220 according to a predetermined coordinate system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a link in the touch-based drawing input method according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the terminal 100 receives a touch gesture having at least one of reference point information, length information, and direction information through the input unit 210 at step 310.

In this embodiment, if a touch gesture having two contact points is detected, the coordinates of at least one of the contact points may be used as the reference point. The distance between the two contact points may be used as the length information, and direction of the line connecting the two contact points may be used as the direction information.

At step 320, The control unit 230 displays supplementary information and indication line based on at least one of the reference point information, length information, and direction information.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the supplementary information may include, when the touch gesture has two contact points, the line connecting the two contact points, a circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius, and a distance between the two contact points. The line connecting the two contact points and the circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius may be presented as dotted lines on the display unit 220. The line connecting the two contact points is referred to as indication line.

At step 330, the control unit 230 determines whether a selection command is received through the input unit 210. The selection command may be input by input tool in such a way of making the touch more than one time at the same position, changing the frequency of the electric vibration more than one time, or releasing the contact of the input tool.

If no selection command is input, the control unit 230 returns the procedure to step 310 to acquire at least one reference information, length information, and display the supplementary information and indication line according to the acquired information.

At step 340, if the selection command is received, the control unit 230 controls the display unit 220 to show the selected indication line. In one embodiment of the present invention, the selected indication line may be the segment connecting the two contact points of the multi-touch gesture. The segment connecting the two contact points can presented as a dotted line initially and then changed, if selected by the selection command, for a solid line at step 340.

At step 350, the input unit 210 can determine whether additional direction information is input. The additional direction information may be input with a touch gesture made for correcting the indication line selected at step 340. At step 360, if additional direction information is input, the control unit 230 preferably acquires the additional input information and returns the procedure to step 320 to display the changed supplementary information and the changed dotted line.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the additional direction information may be input with a drag gesture starting from one end point of the selected indication line. The drag gesture may be completed by matching the electrical vibration generated by the input tool with a predetermined frequency and then makes a touch gesture. By making a touch input in this way, it is possible to correct or change the direction of the selected indication line.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary situation of drawing a straight line with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the user may make a touch gesture with the first and second input tools 410 and 420 on the display unit 405 of the terminal 400.

The first input tool 410 may make a touch input while the second input tool 420 makes anther touch input or electrical input onto the terminal 400. The electrical input is of generating one of distinct electrical vibrations to the terminal 400. The distinct electrical vibrations are generated selectively by selector 425.

In an embodiment of the present invention, if a touch gesture is made with the first and second input tools 420 a and 320 b, the control unit 230 can control the display unit 220 to show the supplementary information 435 a and 440 a and the indication line 430 a. The indication line 430 a may be a dotted line connecting the contact points of the touch gesture. The supplementary information 435 a and 440 a may include the dotted line circle having the indication line as its radius and the length information on the indication line. The supplementary information 435 a and 440 a may vary as the contact points of the touch gesture change.

If a user executes a command for selecting the indication line 430 a, the control unit 230 controls the terminal such that the indication line 430 a is changed for a solid line. The selected indication line 430 a may be the segment connecting the two contact points of the touch gesture. The supplementary information 435 a and 440 a may be displayed continuously even after the selection command is input. The selection command may be input by pushing the selector 425 b or by releasing the contact of one of the first and second input tools 410 b and 420 b from the terminal 400 b.

The terminal 400 b may receive the additional direction information input by through of one of the first and second input tools 410 b and 420 b, even after displaying the selected indication line 435 b and correcting the direction of the indication line 345 b selected based on the additional direction information.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the terminal 400 receives the touch gesture made with the first and second input tools 410 a and 420 b. The touch gesture is made by the user activating on the selector 425 a, preferably wherein the selector 425 a is a button and the button is depressed. The display unit 405 a may display at least one of the indication line 430 a connecting the two contact points of the touch gesture, length information 435 a, and dotted line circle 440 a.

The user may input the selection command to the terminal 400 b by releasing the selector 425 b. The display unit 405 b is capable of displaying the indication line 435 b selected by the selection command in the form of a solid line. If one of the contacts of first and second input tools 410 b and 420 b is released after the input of the selection command, the display unit 405 b can hide the supplementary information 435 b and 440 b and show only the indication line 430 b.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the selection command may be generated by releasing the contact of one of the first and second input tools 410 b and 420 b without manipulation of the selector 425 b.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a figure in the touch-based drawing input method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

At step 510, the terminal 200 receives a touch gesture having at least one of reference point information, length information, and direction information through the input unit 210 at step 510.

In one embodiment of the present invention, if a touch gesture having two contact points is detected, the coordinates of at least one of the contact points may be used as the reference point. The distance between the two contact points may be used as first length information, and direction of the line connecting the two contact points may be used as the first direction information.

At step 520, the control unit 230 controls the display unit 220 to display the supplementary information and indication line based on at least one of the reference point information, the first length information, and the first direction information.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the supplementary information may include, when the touch gesture has two contact points, the line connecting the two contact points, circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius, and distance between the two contact points. The line connecting the two contact points and the circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius may be presented as dotted lines on the display unit 220. The line connecting the two contact points is referred to as indication line.

At step 530, the control unit 230 determines whether a first selection command is received through the input unit 210. The first selection command may be input by use of the input tool in such a way of making the touch more than one time at the same position, changing the frequency of the electric vibration more than one time, or releasing the contact of the input tool. The indication line may be selected by the first selection command. If the indication line is selected, the procedure advances to the next step based on the indication line and, if the first selection command is not received, the procedure returns to step 510 to acquire the reference point information, first length information, and second length information from a touch input.

At step 540, if the first selection command is received, the control unit 230 acquires the second length information of the second direction information input. The second length information and the second direction information may include the relative length from one of the both ends of the selected indication line based on the touch input detected by the input unit 210.

The display unit 220 may display the supplementary information and indication line based on the second length information or the second direction information. The indication line may be an arc as a part of the circle having the indication line selected based on the second length information or the second direction information as its radius. The supplementary information may be the value indicating the center angle of the arc as a part of the circle having the indication link selected based on the second length information or the second direction information as its radius.

At step 560, the control unit 230 determines whether the second input is received through the input unit 210 at step 560. The second selection command may be input in the same way as the first selection command and, if no selection command is received, the input unit 210 receives the second length information on the second direction information.

At step 570, if the second selection command is received, the control unit controls the display unit 220 to display the indication line selected by the second selection command.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary situation of drawing a figure with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the user may make a touch gesture with the first input tool 610 and the second input tool 620 on the display unit 605 of the terminal 600.

The first input tool 610 may make a touch input while the second input tool 620 makes another input or electrical input onto the terminal 600. The electrical input is of generating one of distinct electrical vibrations to the terminal 600. The distinct electrical vibrations are generated selectively by selector 625.

In one embodiment of the present invention, if a touch gesture is made with the first and second input tools 620 a and 620 b, the control unit 230 controls the display 220 to show the supplementary information 635 a and 640 a and the indication line 630 a. The indication line 630 a may be a dotted line connecting the contact points of the touch gesture. The supplementary information 635 a and 640 a may include the dotted line circle having the indication line as its radius and the length information on the indication line. The supplementary information 435 a and 440 a may vary as the contact points of the touch gesture change.

If a user command for selecting the indication line 430 a is input, the control unit 230 changes indication line 430 a into a solid line. The selected indication line 430 a may be the segment connecting the two contact points of the touch gesture.

The terminal 600 b may receive the second length information or the second direction information. The second length information or the second direction information may be determined depending on the relationship between one of the end points of the selected indication line 435 a and the contact point of the new touch gesture.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the second length information or the second direction information may be the touch input made with the second input tool 620 b on the dotted line circle 640 b. The control unit 230 controls the display 220 to show the indication line 650 b and the supplementary information 655 b and 660 b forming the angle corresponding to the indication line 650 b according to the second length information or the second direction information. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the indication line 650 may be expressed as a dotted line.

The control unit 230 may select the indication line arc 650 b in response to a second selection command. In this way, the user can draw an arc having a specific radius.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a touch gesture is made with the first and second input tools 610 a and 620 a. The touch gesture may be made in the state that the selector 625 a is pushed on. If the selector 625 a is switched off by the user, the terminal 600 a receives the first selection signal. In response to the first selection signal, the first segment connecting the contact points of the first and second input tools 610 a and 620 a is determined.

The terminal 600 b may acquire the second length information or the second direction information based on the first segment. The second length information or the second direction information may be acquired as the relative position to one end of the first segment based on the touch input made with the second input tool 620 b, and an indication line is expressed in the form of an arc based on the second length information or the second direction information. The arc as the indication line may be an arc of the circle having the first segment as its radius or an arc having a radius corrected according to the second length information or the second direction information. The second selection input may be made in such a way of input the second length information or the second direction information in the state that the selector 625 b is off and then releasing the contact of the second input tool 620 b. The indication line in the form of an arc is selected in this way, and the supplementary information 655 b and 660 b may be hidden on the display unit 605 b according to the second selection command.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the positions of the first and second input tools 620 a and 620 b may be changed, and the user may input the second length information or the second direction information with the first input tool 610 b in the state that the second input tool 620 b maintains the contact to the center point of the arc.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a figure in the touch-based drawing input method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, at step 710, the terminal 200 receives a touch gesture having at least one of reference point information, length information, and direction information through the input unit 210.

In one embodiment of the present invention, if a touch gesture having two contact points is made, the coordinates of the two contact points may be used as the reference points. Also, the distance between two contact points may be used as the length information, and the direction of the line connecting the two contact points may be used as the direction information.

At step 7210, the control unit 230 may control the display unit 220 to display the supplementary information and indication line based on at least one of the reference point information, the first length information, and the direction information.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the supplementary information may include, when the touch gesture has two contact points, the line connecting the two contact points, a circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius, and distance between the two contact points. The line connecting the two contact points and the circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius may be presented as dotted lines on the display unit 220. The line connecting the two contact points is referred to as indication line.

At step 730, the control unit 230 determines whether a command for selecting the circle is input through the input unit 210. The circle selection command may be input by the input tool in such a way of making the touch more than one time at the same position, changing the frequency of the electric vibration more than one time, or releasing the contact of the input tool. If the circle selection command is not received, the procedure returns to step 710 to acquire the reference point information and the length information.

If the circle selection command is received, the control unit 230 controls the terminal to display the selected circle.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating one exemplary situation of drawing a figure with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 8, the user may make a touch gesture with the first input tool 810 and the second input tool 820 on the display unit 805 of the terminal 800.

The first input tool 810 may make a touch input, and the second input tool 820 makes another input or electrical input onto the terminal 800. The electrical input is typically of generating one of distinct electrical vibrations to the terminal 800. The distinct electrical vibrations are preferably generated selectively by selector 825, which is typically in the form of a button.

In one embodiment of the present invention, if a touch gesture is made with the first and second input tools 820 a and 820 b, the control unit 230 controls the terminal to display supplementary information 835 a and 840 a and the indication line 830 a. The indication line 830 a may be a dotted line connecting the contact points of the touch gesture. The supplementary information 835 a and 840 a may include the dotted line circle having the indication line as its radius and the length information on the indication line. The supplementary information 835 a and 840 a may vary as the contact points of the touch gesture change.

The circle 840 b may be selected by a user command. If the circle selection command is detected, the control unit 230 controls the terminal such that the dotted line circle 840 a having the indication line 830 b as its radius is changed for a solid line circle 840 b.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the terminal 800 a may receive a touch gesture made with the first and second input tools 820 a and 820 b. Touch input is input in the state that the selector is on. The display unit 805 a is capable of displaying at least one of the indication line 830 a connecting both the end points of the touch input, length information 835 a, and dotted line circle 840 a. The selection command may be generated in such a way of switching on/off the selector at least once and, preferably, double-clicking the selector. In response to the selection command, the circle having the indication line 830 b as its radius is selected such that the dotted line circle 840 a is changed for the solid line circle 840 b.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of drawing a figure in the touch-based drawing input method according to another embodiment of the present invention. At step 910, the terminal 200 receives a touch gesture having at least one of reference point information, length information, and direction information through the input unit 210.

In one embodiment of the present invention, if a touch gesture having two contact points is detected, the coordinates of the two contact points may be used as the reference points. Also, the distance between two contact points may be used as the length information, and the direction of the line connecting the two contact points may be used as the direction information.

At step 920, the terminal 200 may further receive at least one of reference point information, length information, and direction information through the input unit 210.

The control unit 230 may control the display unit 220 to display the supplementary information and indication line at step 930, based on at least one of the reference information, length information, and direction information acquired at steps 910 and 920.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the supplementary information may include, when the touch gesture has two contact points, the line connecting the two contact points, a circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius, and a distance between the two contact points. The line connecting the two contact points and the circle having the line connecting the two contact points as its radius may be presented as dotted lines on the display unit 220. The line connecting the two contact points is referred to as indication line. The reference points acquired at step 920 are also connected in the same way to display the corresponding the supplementary information and indication line.

The control unit 230 determines whether a selection command is input through the input unit 210. The selection command may be input by means of an input means in such a way of making the touch more than one time at the same position, changing the frequency of the electric vibration more than one time, or releasing the contact of the input tool.

If the selection command is not received, the procedure returns to step 920 to acquire the reference point information, the length information, and direction information and display the supplementary information and indication line based on the acquired information.

If the selection command is received, the control unit 230 controls the terminal such that the selected indication line is displayed at step 950. In one embodiment of the present invention, the selected indication line may be the segment connection the two points which is changed from the dotted line to the solid line according to the selection command.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary situation of drawing a figure with a touch-based drawing input on the terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 10, the user may make a touch gesture with the first input tool 1010 and the second input tool 1020 on the display unit 1005 of the terminal 1000.

The first input tool 1010 may make a touch input, and the second input tool 1020 makes another input or electrical input onto the terminal 1000. The electrical input is typically generating one of distinct electrical vibrations to the terminal 1000. The distinct electrical vibrations are generated selectively by selector 1025.

In this embodiment, if a touch gesture is made with the first and second input tools 1020 a and 1020 b, the control unit 230 controls the terminal 1000 to display the supplementary information 1035 a and 1040 a and the indication line 1030 a. The indication line 1030 a may be a dotted line connecting the contact points of the touch gesture. The supplementary information 1035 a and 1040 a may include the dotted line circle having the indication line as its radius and the length information on the indication line. The supplementary information 1035 a and 1040 a may vary as the contact points of the touch gesture change.

If a user's selection command is made to select the indication line 1035 a, the dotted indication line 1035 a is changed for the solid indication line 1035 b. The selected indication line 1035 b may be the segment connecting the two end points of the touch made for generating the selection command. The supplementary information 1035 b and 1040 b may be displayed even after the input of the selection command. The selection command may be generated in such a way of clicking the selector 1025 b and or releasing the contact of one of the first and second input tools 1010 b and 10120 b.

According to the selection command, the line drawn with the second input tool 1020 b may be changed for a solid line 1050 b.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the terminal 1000 a may detect a touch gesture having plural contact points in the state that the selector 1025 is on. Whenever a touch gesture having plural contact points is detected, the corresponding indication line 1030 a and supplementary information 1035 a and 1040 a are as shown. Afterward, if the selector 1025 b is off, the indication line 1030 a is changed for the solid indication line 1050 b.

The drawing input method and apparatus of the present invention is capable of allowing the user to draw a figure such as line, circle, and arc selectively without any drawing mode selection step. The drawing input method and apparatus is capable of facilitating touch-based input for drawing a figure by providing assistive information such as dotted line such that the user can draw a figure in intended shape and size.

The drawing input method and apparatus of the present invention is capable of selecting one of various input methods without changing the contact point of an input tool making an electrical touch input such as tablet pen and drawing a figure such as line, circle, and arc in a seamless manner, resulting in improvement of manipulation efficiency.

It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing the technical concept of this invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that above-described embodiments are essentially for illustrative purpose only but not in any way for restriction thereto. Thus the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents rather than the specification, and various alterations and modifications within the definition and scope of the claims are included in the claims.

The above-described methods according to the present invention can be implemented in hardware, firmware or via execution of software or computer code that can be stored in a recording medium such as a CD ROM, an RAM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magneto-optical disk or computer code downloaded over a network originally stored on a remote recording medium or a non-transitory machine readable medium and to be stored on a local recording medium, so that the methods described herein can be rendered in such software that is stored on the recording medium using a general purpose computer, or a special processor or in programmable or dedicated hardware, such as an ASIC or FPGA. As would be understood in the art, the computer, the processor, microprocessor controller or the programmable hardware include memory components, e.g., RAM, ROM, Flash, etc. that may store or receive software or computer code that when accessed and executed by the computer, processor or hardware implement the processing methods described herein. In addition, it would be recognized that when a general purpose computer accesses code for implementing the processing shown herein, the execution of the code transforms the general purpose computer into a special purpose computer for executing the processing shown herein.

The terms “unit” or “module” referred to herein is to be understood as comprising hardware such as a processor or microprocessor configured for a certain desired functionality, or a non-transitory medium comprising machine executable code, in accordance with statutory subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101 and does not constitute software per se.

Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described using specific terms, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense in order to help understand the present invention. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for drawing a figure in correspondence to an input made with a first input tool and a second input tool to a terminal being capable of detecting physical touch and electrical input, the method comprising: detecting touch input made with at least one of the first input tool and the second input tool to the input unit; displaying at least one line movable according to contact points of the detected input on a display unit of the terminal; receiving a selection command based on an electrical input made with at least one of the first and second input tools; and displaying one of the at least one line as the line of which at least one of length and direction is fixed.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting comprises: receiving the physical and electrical inputs made with at least one of the first and second input tools simultaneously; and determining the contact points where the touch input is made according to the physical and electrical inputs.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying at least one line comprises: displaying a first line connecting the contact points and movable according to the contact points; and displaying at least one of a second line located on a circle having the first line as a radius and movable according to the contact points and supplementary information indicating the length of the first line.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying at least one line comprises displaying the a first line connecting the contact points and movable according to the contact points, displaying one of the at least one line as the line of which at least one of length and direction is fixed comprises, and displaying the first line as the line of which length is fixed according to the selection command, and wherein the method for drawing a figure further comprises: receiving additional direction information, based on the first line, with at least one of the first and second tools; and displaying a third line located on an arc having the first line as a radius based on the additional direction information and movable according to the additional direction information.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein displaying the third line located on an arc comprises displaying supplementary information indicating center angle of the arc corresponding to the third line.
 6. The method of claim 4, further comprising: re-determining the radius of the arc based on the received additional direction information; and correcting the third line displayed based on re-defined radius of the arc.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying at least one line comprises displaying a fourth line located on a circle having the line connecting the contact points as a diameter or a radius and movable according to the contact points, and displaying one of the at least one line as the line of which at least one of length and direction is fixed comprises displaying the fourth line as a line of which length and direction are fixed based on the received selection command.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting an additional input made with one of the first and second input tools; receiving an additional selection command from one of the first and second input tools; and displaying a line connecting the detected contact point and a point corresponding to the additional input.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first and second input tools generates electrical output vibrating at distinct frequencies according to a user selection.
 10. A terminal for drawing a figure based on a user input, the terminal comprising: an input unit which detects at least one of physical touch and electrical input; a display unit which displays an image based on an input on the input unit; and a control unit adapted to control detecting a touch input made with the first and second input tools to the input unit; displaying at least one line movable according to contact points of the detected input on a display unit of the terminal; receiving a selection command based on the electrical input made with at least one of the first and second input tools; and displaying one of the at least one line wherein at least one of length and direction is fixed.
 11. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the input unit receives the physical and electrical inputs made with at least one of the first and second input tools simultaneously and determines the contact points where the touch input is made according to the physical and electrical inputs.
 12. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit controls the display unit to display a first line connecting the contact points and movable according to the contact points and display at least one of a second line located on a circle having the first line as a radius and movable according to the contact points and supplementary information indicating the length of the first line.
 13. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit is adapted to display the first line connecting the contact points and movable according to the contact points on the display unit, display the first line as the line of which length is fixed according to the selection command on the display unit, receive additional direction information, based on the first line, with at least one of the first and second tools through the input unit, and display a third line located on an arc having the first line as a radius based on the additional direction information and movable according to the additional direction information on the display unit.
 14. The terminal of claim 13, wherein the control unit is adapted to display supplementary information indicating center angle of the arc corresponding to the third line on the display unit.
 15. The terminal of claim 13, wherein the control unit is adapted to re-determine the radius of the arc based on the received additional direction information and correct the third line displayed based on re-defined radius of the arc.
 16. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit is adapted to display a fourth line located on a circle having the line connecting the contact points as a diameter or a radius and movable according to the contact points on the display unit and one of the at least one line as the line of which at least one of length and direction is fixed comprises displaying the fourth line as a line of which length and direction are fixed based on the received selection command on the display unit.
 17. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit is adapted to detect an additional input made with one of the first and second input tools, to receive an additional selection command from one of the first and second input tools, and to display a line connecting the detected contact point and a point corresponding to the additional input.
 18. The terminal of claim 10, wherein the input unit is adapted to receive electrical output vibrating at distinct frequencies generated by one of the first and second input tools according to a user selection.
 19. The terminal of claim 10, further comprising an input device comprising an electrical output and adapted to provide at least one of a physical touch and the electrical output to the input unit.
 20. The terminal of claim 19, wherein the electrical output of the input device comprises a selector for selectively controlling the electrical output.
 21. The terminal of claim 20, wherein the selector is a button. 